Chinese astronauts, from left, Zhang Xiaoguang, Nie Haisheng and Wang Yaping celebrate after getting out of the re-entry capsule of China's Shenzhou 10 spacecraft following its successful landing in Siziwang Banner, north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region on June 26, 2013. / AP

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

by Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY

BEIJING â?? After China's longest ever manned space mission, three astronauts safely returned to Earth Wednesday as China celebrated another successful step forward in the slow but steady space program that President Xi Jinping has linked to his "dream" of national revival.

The 15-day mission, whose highlights included manual docking with an orbiting space station and a science lecture to 60 million students, concluded when the descent module of the Shenzhou 10 spacecraft parachuted down to a sparsely populated area of Inner Mongolia.

The Shenzhou 10, whose name means "Sacred Vessel," linked up with the Tiangong 1 ("Heavenly Palace") space station in a "perfect" mission, Wang Zhaoyao, director of China's manned space program, told a news conference in Beijing. Tiangong 1 has now completed its mission as an experimental prototype and will not be revisited. By 2020, Beijing plans to launch a permanently manned space station.

"As we celebrate our success, we also realize the fact that there is still a very large gap between China and the leading space countries in terms of manned space technology and capability," said Wang. China's space efforts remain a source of considerable pride in China â?? and a few grumbles at the huge expense in what remains a developing nation.

The Chinese and U.S. space programs appear like "a classic tortoise and hare," said Joan Johnson-Freese, a professor of national security affairs, and an expert on the Chinese space program, at the U.S. Naval War College. "China has an incremental plan, step by step, they are in no hurry, but it's also very ambitious," she said.

China flies fewer missions than the U.S. Apollo program, "but takes bigger steps," said Johnson-Freese. "They read the Apollo playbook, and know all the things the U.S. got from a human space program," she said, including economic benefits, dual-use technology with military capability, and a boost for science programs and public interest.

Most importantly, "what China has is political will, because they are an authoritarian country," and so can push forward their program without the financial pressures faced by Western governments, said Johnson-Freese. China fits the term "techno-nationalism, to use technology to demonstrate your prowess. It's giving them a lot of street cred in Asia and the rest of the world."

On Monday, President Xi, head of China's ruling Communist Party, told the astronauts via a video call that space exploration is "part of the dream to make China stronger." Xi also attended the ceremony to see them off on June 11 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwestern China.

To achieve the next key stage of China's space program, the country is building Long March 5 launch rockets capable of carrying up to 20 tons of cargo at near-Earth orbit to construct and supply the permanent space station, said Yuan Jie, vice president of China Aerospace Science and Technology, at the Beijing news conference. These are at the prototype stage in the new launch center on southern Hainan Island, which has been under construction since 2009.

The 50-minute, in-space lecture by female astronaut Wang Yaping proved highly popular. Wang Zheng, 10, a schoolboy from Luohe city in central China's Henan province, saw news of the lecture on television news. "I want to be an astronaut one day. I want to contribute to China's development, and it would be fun to go so fast in a rocket," he said Wednesday when touring the Beijing Planetarium.

His father Wang Shi, 40, a local government official, supports his dream. "Although the space program is very expensive, it's necessary to develop an economy founded on science and technology," he said. "Also, it's a symbol of China's growing national power, and makes me proud."

Not all Chinese are so impressed. "The Shenzhou 10 mission is nothing to do with ordinary people who are still poor, bullied, can't afford an apartment and hospital fees, or to study. More space missions means ordinary people will be poorer, because it's all tax payer's money," playwright Yu Xiaochen wrote earlier this month on the Twitter-like Sina Weibo microblogging service.